Never a good sign when your biopic film opens with the central character saying “who is Robbie Williams?” and I have to ask myself the same question.

“Better Man” tells the life story of UK pop singer Robbie Williams, who in the film is depicted as a chimpanzee (because he’s always felt “less evolved” than everyone else). The CGI chimp is performed by Jonno Davies using motion capture, and voiced by both Williams and Davies, while Steve Pemberton, Kate Mulvany, Alison Steadman, and Damon Herriman also star and Michael Gracey directs.

Like most Americans (especially Millennial and younger), I have no real idea who Robbie Williams is, outside maybe hearing his name in pop culture passing. So when I saw the trailer for this call him “one of the biggest stars in the world” I had to chuckle (not to sound like an egocentric American, but if you’re not relevant in the world’s biggest country, it’s hard to say you’re the world’s biggest star). Then of course there is the ̶e̶l̶e̶p̶h̶a̶n̶t̶ monkey in the room, where the film’s selling point is Williams is portrayed as a chimp and not a human. To the film’s credit, it does have some catchy and visually dazzling musical sequences, but a self-indulgent runtime and formulaic script stop it from standing out among the sea of musical biopics.

The CGI chimp aspect of the film is fine. I don’t think it ever fully escapes the uncanny valley, however it isn’t as off-putting as the humanoid animals in, say, “Cats.” No one in the film addresses the fact that Williams is an ape and he doesn’t act any differently than his human counterparts, so it really just leaves you feeling like the whole thing was an attempt to give the film have a hook in the marketing department.

Directed by “The Greatest Showman’s” Michael Gracey, the film does have some fun musical numbers and bursts of energy. Granted I haven’t heard of most any of Williams’ songs that are being played, but I found my foot tapping on multiple occasions and we get a couple actually famous songs from the likes of Sinatra to perk our ears from time to time.

The real issues with “Better Man” are its runtime and a lingering sense of “why are we here?” The film runs 135 minutes, and you really start to feel that length in the final act (a couple walked out with 25 minutes left when it became clear we weren’t even at the climax yet). There is no real flow or sense of time, and outside a brief billboard or ticket stub we don’t even know the year a segment is set in (one of the film’s big emotional numbers in act three, which is implied to have been written in response to a personal tragedy, was actually on Williams’ debut album). It makes the film feel disjointed and scattershot, and partnered with the fact we are being led by a CGI monkey and not an aging human, it’s hard to know where in Williams’ life we are following. The film also has the gall to imply that Williams is as big and culturally relevant as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and maybe it’s a personal issue but after I was done laughing I found it a bit egocentric.

“Better Man” will undoubtedly hit harder with British audiences and people who followed Williams’ early career, but the average viewer (especially in America) is left with a fairly generic musician biopic, though I do commend the filmmakers and Williams from not shying away from showing his drug abuse and personal flaws, unlike a “Bohemian Rhapsody” that tries to keep the central star’s image relatively clean. If you like flashy style-over-substance musicals or British humor then there is enough here for you to enjoy, but while we are in the height of awards season there are simply too many better films that you could spend your time watching.

Critics Rating: 5/10